


7/10 Split

by TheMulletWhisperer



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Lesbian Character, Sequel, Some other tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-01-06 18:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12216519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMulletWhisperer/pseuds/TheMulletWhisperer
Summary: After a brief shore leave on the Citadel and the time of her life with a woman she was forced away from by the bonds of duty, Jane Shepard finds herself in quite the predicament when that woman shows up on the same ship she serves aboard.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow look at that, this dozy twat is finally fucking post again, sing hallelujah and eat small woodland animals in thanks.
> 
> This is a sequel to Garden of Eden, and, while not necessary to understand what's happening here (It's pretty straightforward), it would help in understanding some of the references in here. 
> 
> Don't worry, it's not very long, but it also wavers in quality so I don't know. Do what you want.

_...That shore leave was like visiting the Garden of Eden rather than the overcrowded Citadel, full of fat mouthbreathers and blinding neon light. I met someone there who I never expected to and that changed everything. Now I’m-- _

The beeping of the doorbell to Shepard’s quarters dragged her attention away from her journaling. Mindful of anyone snooping, she shut down the terminal and stood up from her desk. What was probably the XO’s room was buried under unpacked, unorganized clothing, weapons she snuck out of the firing range, and a box full of...very private things, which she kicked into a corner.

“Yeah, what is it?” She called out towards the door, unable to find a way past her pile of clothes blocking the door without potentially breaking something important.

“Uh…” Lieutenant Alenko’s voice called from the other side of the door as he attempted to open the door to no avail. “The crew’s all aboard, Commander, waiting for you to brief them.” She could practically hear his uncomfortable shifting from the other side of the door.

“Gotcha. Just…” Jane looked around at the luggage littering the floor, shifting a small pile of socks off to one side. “Let them know I’ll be up in a second, gotta find a way out of here first.

There was a slight pause before he responded with a cautious “Yes ma’am.” His footsteps faded away as he walked away, further into the ship. The Lieutenant was a good kid. A bit naive but he knew what he was doing, despite the air he gave off.

Jane began moving her bags and piles of clothing and equipment off to one side of the room, parting the seas of garbage like a scrapyard Moses. Eventually, something resembling a path opened up and allowed her to walk across the room, though once she reached the door, an afterthought popped into her head and she grabbed a package of fresh shirts, tossing them onto the box of compromising bits that sat in the corner--just in case someone got a bit too curious.

Mindful of the time, Jane clicked the door open, stepping out and letting the motion sensors deal with the closing of it behind her. 

The clicks of her boots echoed through the plasteel corridors of the Normandy as she approached--what she could only see as--the freight elevator that lay in the middle of the otherwise uncluttered crew deck like a pink toilet in a laboratory. The way it looked, the thing could carry several krogans and possibly also a skycar if there was enough room afterwards.

Regardless of the elevator’s function, it got her down to the cargo bay efficiently enough, and as the soldiers came into view, she produced the datapad containing the briefing from her waistband, clicking it on and stepping into the bay.

“Morning, soldiers. Hopefully you’ve all gotten settled in, because the real works starts now.” She spoke with her eyes cast to the briefing, reading ahead while she introduced herself. “Now, the first thing you need to know is that anything you dig up about the Normandy’s specifications needs to be kept quiet, this vessel is experimental and highly classified, if anything gets out, you will all be investigated, and if you’re found guilty it  _ will _ be counted as treason.” Jane herself furrowed her brows as she read that sentence out, but continued nonetheless, “Now that’s out of the way, everyone is to report to the ship’s quartermaster for your assignments and equipment, and Doctor Chakwas for a checkup. If you have any questions, direct them to the XO--that’s me.” She looked up and pointed to herself, taking the time to scan across the soldiers.

Something she saw in the lineup made her do a triple-take, her eyes falling on a single soldier but not lingering there for much more than a second before they went back to scanning the crew. “That’ll be all.” She snapped to attention and saluted them, a motion they all mirrored in unison. Promptly, Shepard turned back and stepped onto the elevator, hammering the “up” button like a nail with a six-inch head. 

Once she reached the crew deck once again, she raced past the waiting Lieutenant and into her quarters, shutting the door behind her and making a beeline straight for her desk. Frantically searching the pile of datapads and papers, she eventually pulled a single datapad out of the mountain, switching it on and scrolling through the names on the crew roster.

_ Tavus, Talorn, Torlan… _

Her eyes stopped on a single entry on the manifest as the rest of her caught up with what she was seeing.

“Shit.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW IT'S BEEN TWO MONTHS, THAT'S DECENT SPEED FOR A FUCKING GLACIER
> 
> I know this one is short, trying to get back into the Mass Effect groove. Hopefully the next one will be longer. Hopefully you're all very understanding people on top of being kind and nice and pretty as well because when I inevitably fail at making the next chapter over 1,000 words your kindness will determine how badly I'm beaten to death by an angry mob.

Shepard walked circles around her cabin, clutching the crew roster. She was hardly upset over this news, she hadn’t gone back on the deal they’d made. Yet, here she was, fidgeting and pacing like a freshman in the academy in love with the drill instructor. It wasn’t like their goodbyes had been final, she was  _ expecting  _ to see Traynor again, just… well, just not under her command. There were dozens of regulations forbidding it, but no matter how hard she’d tried, she hadn’t been able to get Sam out of her mind since the two had said their goodbyes at the spaceport.

Her thoughts were cut short as her door’s signal tone beeped, indicating a visitor. Considering the instructions she’d left not to be bothered, this was either an emergency or someone who hadn’t gotten the memo. “Yeah, what is it?” Her own curtness caught her by surprise. Maybe she was a bit more tense than she’d realized. 

There was a pause after Shepard spoke, and Sam wondered if she should still open the door or not, despite the fact that it was unlocked. Obviously, she’d been thinking too long, as Jane’s voice called out a “Hello?” from the other side. Gathering up what little courage she could, she reached out and… and…

_ Sam, where are you going? _

She fumbled with the door controls and slipped into the crew quarters, hiding her immensely red face from the few recruits inside. Though her suspicious movements did turn some heads, she ultimately went unnoticed and mostly un-embarrassed. Aside from the whole chickening out, thing. 

_ What the hell was that?! _

_Shut up, I couldn’t do it! She sounded pissed, she would’ve been_ ** _really_** _pissed if she saw me there!_

_ Shepard always sounds pissed. _

_ No she doesn’t! She sounds… Okay maybe she does usually sound pissed, but I can tell when it’s the good or bad kind. _

_ The good kind of pissed. _

_ Shut! Quiet! _

Sam turned around with her bathroom amenities in hand, intending to go cool off and come back with a straight head, only to find that the few people lingering in the quarters were staring at her. Only then did she realize she’d been talking aloud to herself. And only after she realized that she’d been talking to herself did she realize that one of her particular… amenities--was poking out from among her towel and toothbrush.

She flushed a near-impossible shade and muttered a hasty apology laced with swears as she sped out of the room with a fiery vengeance, clutching her bathroom supplies to her chest. 

As she broke into a full-on run to the bathroom, her day came full circle, as she slammed into Shepard, and dropped all her things. Although, initially, she was alright, as she made a dive for her particularly-embarassing piece of bathroom equipment, she overshot and slammed her head into the frame of the bathroom door, effectively knocking herself out cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kill me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy fucking Jesus, two chapters within less than 12 hours of one-another! Must be Christmas!

Sam blinked groggily, peeling her eyes open only to snap them shut again at the blinding light of the fluorescents above her proving a bit too much for her likely-concussed brain. Somewhere to her right, she could hear muffled conversation, but the hum of the ship’s engines and the chatter outside the medical bay seemed almost louder to her. Why, exactly, she was in the medical bay was a mystery to her, though she was certain it was something embarassing. 

She sat upright, clutching her aching, throbbing head in her hand as she swung her feet over the side of the bed. “Urgh…” She muttered, furrowing her brow and blinking a few more times. “What happened?” Sam looked up to find Doctor Chakwas and Shepard sitting across the room from her, conversing with one-another.

_ Ohhhh no. This is bad. This is bad, Sam. What did you do? _

_ Urgh. _

Shepard was the first to approach, looking like she was about to grab Samantha’s arm, but pulling back at the last moment. The commander herself didn’t say anything, though, simply stood there staring at Sam with a very confused look on her face.

_ You must’ve done something really really bad. _

“You… fell on the way to the bathroom, Specialist. Try to take it easy. You don’t have a concussion, but your head will be hurting for the rest of the day.” Chakwas entered the picture from behind Shepard, carrying a bottle of painkillers. “You also dropped some things, I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of packing them up.” Karin motioned to the box of things, covered up by a towel, and all at once, the events leading up to her injury came flooding back.

“Oh… erm, thank you, doctor.” She could practically see the shade of red that she flushed, as she stared at the box, silently praying that Shepard hadn’t looked inside. Already she felt as if she were going to die of embarrassment, but if Jane had seen what she was taking with her to the bathroom, she may have quite literally died.

“Commander,” She looked up to Shepard, squinting through the halo of sterile laboratory light behind the Commander’s head. “I’m sorry I ran into you, I wasn’t paying attention, it won’t happen again.” She raised a hand to block out the light, only to see Karin staring at her quizzically. “Oh, sorry, doctor.” She turned to the only other person in the room, opening her mouth to repeat what she’d said, only to be cut off. 

“I heard you, Specialist.” Jane looked to Chakwas, motioning to the door. “Would you mind, doctor? We’ll only be a moment.” The look on her freckled face was apologetic, but it was obvious there was something that the XO wanted to get off her chest. Evidently noticing this herself, the doctor nodded and exited the room promptly.

Shepard sat down on the edge of the medical bed in a lingering silence, that was only broken when Sam spoke up, “I really am sorry, Commander. I suppose I didn’t mesh as well as I thought with the crew, and I’m sure I’ll be a laughingstock for the next few weeks at least.”

Jane smirked and chuckled in her throat, resting an elbow on one of her legs and leaning forward, “I’m not talking to you as a Commander, Sam. I’m talking to you as Jane. Seriously, are you alright? You took a pretty bad dive there.”

Sam cracked a soft smile and nodded to the question, bringing a hand around to rub her neck, “Yeah, I’m fine. My head just hurts a bit. Well, a lot.” 

“Hey, at least you don’t have a concussion.” Shepard laughed again, taking a deep breath and once again letting the tense silence wash over them. Fully aware of the time constraint, Jane drew upright, pursing her lips. “So, we should probably talk about this.”

Before the Commander had even gotten the words out of her mouth, Sam found herself agreeing profusely, pulling her hands away from her head and giving her full attention to Shepard as she spoke, “Shore leave was really fun, and I know we said we’d call, but we weren’t really expecting to be assigned to the same ship, were we?” Sam shook her head, remaining anxiously silent as Shepard continued, “I don’t know what you want to do here. We’d be breaking a lot of regulations and we’d have to be careful, but… I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.”

Traynor leaned back, processing what she’d just heard and trying to make sure that she  _ had  _ actually heard it. It didn’t take long for her to be certain, however, as she reached out to take the Commander’s hand with a smile, “Of course I want to give it a shot.” She blushed as Jane squeezed her hand in that rough, calloused hand of a soldier. 

“Then we’ll give it a shot.” Shepard spoke in an upbeat tone as she let go and stood up, “Now, we should  _ probably  _ get going before people start to talk.” She held out a hand to help Traynor up, which she gladly took.

_ Okay, you’ve got this Sam. You didn’t fuck it up this time. Just don’t do that again. _

_ I hate you so much sometimes. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't feel wonderful about this one, so any positive feedback/constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me step out of character for a second and say I'm genuinely sorry for how long this took to get out. I struggle with starting too many projects at once. There might be a time between this chapter and the next, I honestly can't tell you because I just write when the mood strikes, but I assure and promise you that this work will be completed and all others after it.
> 
> Okay back into character haha boy i sure love being depressed and wanting to die ha HA

“Out of the way, move move!” Kaidan shouted as someone was rushed through the CIC, flanked by a completely new face, as well as a group of uniformed soldiers. Although she tried to get a look at the figure laid out on the gurney, Sam couldn’t make out their face, only the armor at a glimpse. Even so, there were only a few people it could be.

_ You should’ve gone to see her before the mission, Sam. _

Traynor pushed away from her spot at the ship’s consoles and followed behind the crowd that seemed to be picking up new members everywhere they went. Down the stairs she went, trailing behind at a safe distance so she didn’t disturb anything important. 

The last look she got before the injured party was ferried into the med bay was even less revealing than the others, only a soot-covered boot visible. 

_ It’s Shepard, it has to be. _

_ You don’t know that. Nihilus and Jenkins weren’t there either. _

_ Then what would that mean?! That she’s dead, or stranded?  _

Traynor stood back near the entrance to the cafeteria, shifting nervously as the mob around the doors of the medical bay dispersed to their own conversations. While she wanted to knock on the door, to check on whoever it was inside and to confirm her worst fears, she knew that it would only be a disturbance. 

“Hey!” She called out to a crewman she’d seen amongst the crowd, flagging him down and approaching him as he paused. “Who’s in there? What happened down there?” She began toying with her own fingers, her usual tic coming in to roost.

“You don’t know?” He raised a brow, glancing back at the door. “Well,” he began, “apparently there were Geth on Eden Prime, but they weren’t alone.  _ I  _ heard they had some sort of alien monster or something that tore up the Commander and killed Jenkins. Apparently Nihilus was working with them the whole time!” His voice was nothing but a whisper of paranoid ramblings as he cautiously looked around for any eavesdroppers.

_ He’s insane, don’t listen to him.  _

_ But what if it’s true? We can’t dismiss it out of hand! _

“What… what kind of alien monster?” Traynor’s voiced carried a note of apprehensiveness as she questioned the crewman, shifting uncomfortably--both for fear of the paranoid man and for fear of suddenly having her heart crushed.

“They said it was some sort of giant flying robot squid. The marine they brought back was saved from it by Jenkins before it just totally disintegrated him.” He wiggled his fingers and made a  _ fssh  _ noise with his mouth to punctuate his story.

_ He’s definitely insane. Maybe Kaidan knows something. _

Sam nodded, both to her inner voice and to the paranoid nutter. “Right. Thanks.” She slipped away, making for the lockers and squirming under the burning gaze she felt on her back.

_ Twenty credits say he’s standing over our bunk by night. _

_ Shut it! _

“Kaidan?” She approached the biotic who seemed to be nursing several scrapes and bruises from whatever they’d encountered below, his normally-awful hair flattened, somehow looking  _ more  _ respectable. “Who’s in the medbay? Is everything alright?” Although she tried to project her usual confidence, the Specialist couldn’t help letting some worry creep into her voice.

The soldier looked up from his first aid for a moment before once again glancing away. “Sorry, uh…” He glanced at her insignia for a moment, “Specialist. The Captain doesn’t want us discussing it.” His voiced carried a hint of apology but he didn’t seem to care terribly much.

“Is it that bad? Is Shepard okay?” Although the latter question was inadvertent, it slipped in effortlessly without a hint of worry, despite the fact that it was chewing away at her guts. 

“I don’t know.” Kaidan shrugged and gave her a helpless glance, obviously not entirely committed to helping her get her question answered. 

_ Everyone on this ship is so damned obtuse.  _

_ I guess there’s one more person I could try? _

“Thanks, Kaidan.” Sam huffed and turned away, returning to the cafeteria as the new face serendipitously arrived around the corner, her pearl-white helmet tucked in the crook of her arm. Her brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, accentuating her facial features.

_ She’s rather attractive. _

_ We don’t even know what’s happened to Shepard yet and you’re already scoping out new mates? _

“Excuse me, miss.” Traynor, now a bit tired of dealing with people, approached the marine, her hands clasped together. 

“Hey.” She raised a hand to wave to the Specialist, “Name’s Williams, Gunnery Chief for the 2nd Frontier, good to meet you, Specialist.” She gave a reserved smile, her somewhat rigid nature not boding well for the information she was trying to glean. Her only hope was if the Chief hadn’t already been debriefed.

“I’m Comms Specialist Traynor, ma’am.” In line with protocol, she gave a salute--albeit a halfhearted one--to Williams, quickly returning to a relaxed stance. “I was hoping you could fill me in on who’s in the medbay and where the Commander is.” 

“Those both have the same answer, Specialist.” Williams nodded to the medbay doors as Sam’s heart sunk to the pit of her stomach. “She touched some kind of alien artifact and passed out. I think she’s okay though. She wasn’t exactly bleeding from the eyes when we got her back here.”

Though the image made Samantha wince a bit, her relief was immense and overpowered any queasy feelings brought on by the statement. Despite this, she kept it from showing on her face, determined not to let news of the relatioinship slip before its time, simply smiling and nodding in thanks to the woman. “Perfect. Well, not…” She trailed off for a moment, reclaiming her sentence before continuing, “Thank you, ma’am.” She saluted again, not even waiting for a return before walking off. 

_ Well, there’s your answer. Stop the wandering eye. _

_ I can’t help it, you made me this way. _

Sam paused around the corner and sat down on one of the steps, taking a deep breath and steadying her heart. Ever since their embarrassing meeting in the medbay they hadn’t seen much of one another, Shepard worrying about the crew and Sam getting acquainted with her new post. If the Commander had died...

_ I need to go have a lie down. _

_ You’re still on shift, Traynor. _

_...Shite. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ignore this note, I had to put it here so the Archive didn't fuck with it. 
> 
> I s
> 
> I SAID
> 
> IGNORE IT

**Author's Note:**

> Perfect, time to go into hibernation for several months.


End file.
